Parlous
by Arella1
Summary: Alice looks back on Hatter's actions as well as her own during their race across Wonderland. Something in that first hour defined their relationship.


AN: So, I had to jump on board the Alice/Hatter ship, even though I'm supposed to be working on 'The Breaking'. Sorry, this plot bunny refused to die or be pacified with Kagome/Legolas goodness. Hope this will hold you 'til that story is done. Loves!

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_Parlous _(PAR lus)- _adj. perilous; dangerous, risky. 2. Shrewd, clever, dangerously mischievous._

All men deserted her. That was a part of life she'd come to accept. _He_, on the other hand, was unlike any man…person she'd ever met. Less than an hour after that fateful encounter, he'd bought her, clothed her, and took a _bullet_ for her. Alice was sure her eyes couldn't have widened any farther as she watched him grab Dodo's gun and then get blasted back with the force of the shot. Panic exploded in her belly as she took a step toward him, only to find herself faced with a roaring mountain of a man. She was left with no choice but to flee from the maniac still waving the gun. And, regardless of the insanity that she'd been dropped into, a part of her hated herself for leaving the Hatter there. Men left. _She_ did not.

He hadn't been particularly pleasant, but he had been the sanest person she'd met this side of the Looking Glass. Though, to be honest, that wasn't much of an accomplishment.

Footsteps pounded behind her as she scrambled into the elevator bus contraption. So many buttons! How was she supposed to operate this thing? Adrenaline pumping, Alice lifted her eyes to see Hatter? _Hatter_ come barreling down the hall and tackle the Dodo. He shouted instructions to her as he tussled with the Resistance leader. Her heart caught in her throat as she turned back to the instrument panel and then allowed herself to look at the fight. She saw Hatter nearly shatter a column with the force of his punch. Shocked, she gaped, realizing he would be fine without her.

Still. She'd left him once, she couldn't run away again.

And then she was wailing on the Dodo and half dragging Hatter back to the contraption and then they were shooting up through the buildings. Body armor? He'd worn freaking _body armor?_

Hatter grinned cockily at her after she'd hit him, but through her anger, she could see that he hadn't come out unscathed. Body armor or not, he'd been shot point blank-that was going to leave a pretty hefty bruise.

Next, he was helping her down a ladder and assuring her that he wouldn't let her fall. He watched his tea shop get raided and followed-led her on a merry chase across Wonderland to find her wayward boyfriend. Hatter helped her when he found out _who_ her boyfriend was. Who her father was.

He said it was purely selfish. He wasn't a bad guy; he'd see her home and then use the ring to get back in good graces with the right people. But, Alice saw his eyes as they stared off at the Knight's Kingdom and its deterioration. She saw the feelings he buried when he saw the Suites bullying and the monarch that held the leashes. She saw him when he looked at her.

Maybe he was selfish, but Alice didn't really think so. She thought he might have been waiting for something to come along that he could give a damn about. Somewhere on their journey together, he seemed to have found it.

She wasn't the type of girl to swoon over princes and glass slippers. She'd never really wanted a knight in shining armor, but she'd gotten one. Charlie's armor was old and tarnished, but it would gleam again with time and atonement. Unfortunately for her, he didn't get his forgiveness by rescuing her. Hatter didn't have armor this time and he still, _still_ rushed in for her. Alice supposed it was just as well she didn't particularly want a knight, both of her friends sucked at it anyways.

Hatter was yanked viciously from his stead and thrown to the ground. Again, his eyes turned to her and she felt sick at the look in them. 'I'm sorry,' they said, and then the Suites fell on him like dogs on a bone. No amount of shouting or threats made them stop, until he was finally dragged away and she was tossed into a waiting room for her audience with the Queen.

She could still hear his screams. They'd dragged him into the room he'd once rescued _her_ from and she knew with horror what the doctors were doing to him. Or, rather, she _didn't_ know and realized that she was helpless, _again._ And the screams kept coming.

Then they stopped and Alice understood in that moment what true terror was. He was dead. _He was dead and it was her fault!_ Everything faded to background noise as she found herself in a bubble and in front of the Queen. Numbly, she stared out until her father was brought in. Something broke inside her as she threw herself against her prison and screamed for him. Hatter was _dead_, just like Dinah and she was going to wake up. She would wake up and this would be over and _why wasn't her father answering her_?

Background noise and numbness again until, somehow, she found herself in the casino, unable to leave her father behind. A few Suites appeared and a familiar person stepping in front of them _again_ for _her_. Wasn't he _dead_? And she was sobbing and holding his battered form as if her life depended on it. After everything, maybe it did.

All these thoughts and memories raced through her mind as she was shoved through the Looking Glass for the second time. She had woken and there was no Father or Jack or Hatter or White Knights gaining redemption. Alice was awake and wondering how that other world…that _grey_ and colorless world could seem so much more _vibrant_ than her own. She felt like Wendy and wondered for the first time why Wendy had chosen to leave Neverland.

Except, she'd left her own Peter with nothing but awkward words and a hopeful glance. Tears gathered in her eyes as her mother went to answer the door. She'd have to get the Looking Glass moved up to the apartment. It needed to be guarded. It was the least she could do and maybe she wasn't quite ready to sever the last tie she had to a man she left for the second? third? time.

"Alice? Come meet David?"

And, she shouldn't have been surprised. The entire time she'd been in Wonderland she'd been running, but hadn't he been right behind her? Something inside her shifted into its place as she threw her arms around him. She'd been running and looking and finally, 'Finally!' she'd found Home. It was here, in his lips on hers and his heart beating with the one pressed so close against it. She wanted to crawl inside of him and cry and purr and never leave.

"I missed you," and it didn't matter who said it, they both meant it.

Alice remembered her mother some time later, about the time that she noticed the huge Looking Glass in her entranceway. Hatter just grinned and shrugged, spinning the tale out to Carol so vividly that her mother was half inclined to believe it. That was before she put her hand to the cool glass and felt it ripple under her skin. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she sank to the floor in a dead faint.

Hatter laughed as he and she carried her mother to the couch before he kissed her again.

"You Oysters have it all right on this side," he remarked, looking around the room. "I might have to stay a while and check things out."

She smiled and felt like her joy lit the room. To him, it did.

In the first hour of their meeting, he bought her, clothed her, and took a _bullet_ for her. Somewhere between that hour and this one, he took her heart as well.

**_And they lived happily ever after...or something like that._**


End file.
